Investigating Inattentional Blindness Through the Lens of Fear Chemosignals

Abstract

Inattentional blindness is a phenomenon wherein people fail to perceive obvious stimuli within their vision, sometimes leading to dramatic consequences. Research on the effects of fear chemosignals suggests that they facilitate receivers’ sensory acquisition. We aimed to examine the interplay between these phenomena, investigating whether exposure to fear chemosignals (vs. rest body odors) can reduce the inattentional-blindness handicap. Utilizing a virtual-reality aquarium, we asked participants to count how many morsels a school of fish consumed while two unexpected stimuli swam by. We predicted that participants exposed to fear chemosignals ( N = 131) would detect unexpected stimuli significantly more often than participants exposed to rest body odors ( N = 125). All participants were adult Portuguese university students aged 18 to 40 years. The results confirmed our hypothesis, χ2(1) = 6.10,  p = .014, revealing that exposure to fear chemosignals significantly increased the detection of unexpected stimuli by about 10%. The implications of our findings open a novel avenue for reducing the adverse consequences of inattentional blindness.